


'Round Midnight

by Kaleidoscope_Carousel



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 09:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1894758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaleidoscope_Carousel/pseuds/Kaleidoscope_Carousel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver’s little sister is sitting on her front porch in the middle of the night, and Laurel has no idea what to do about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Round Midnight

Laurel doesn’t know who’d be knocking on her parents’ front door at a quarter past midnight, but she’s been staring blankly at the tv for hours without taking a thing in and in the strange headspace she’s been in since last Thursday when they got the news. . .when they heard that. . . when _it_ happened, it doesn’t seem so odd to answer it.

She gets up and shuffles over to open the door. At first she doesn’t see anyone, but then there’s a little ragged sound, like a sob, and she looks down at the front steps where a small figure is sitting hunched over, head in hands.

“Hello?” Laurel says, “are you alright?”

The figure lifts her head and Laurel recognises Thea Queen. Her eyes are puffy and red, and she looks even smaller than Laurel remembers, wrapped in a far too large SCU hoody. _It must be Oliver’s,_ Laurel thinks. _Have been,_ she corrects herself, _must have been,_ because Oliver is gone now and he’s not coming back, and his little sister is sitting on her front steps in the middle of the night and Laurel has no idea what to do about that.

“Speedy?” she says, “What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.” Thea’s arms wrap tighter around herself, hands hidden in the depths of the sweatshirt.

“Mom won’t leave her room, and the mansion’s too quiet, and I can’t sleep. Laurel, I can’t sleep because he’s gone. He’s gone and he’s not coming back and I don’t know what to do.” Thea ducks her head again as the tears swallow her voice, and her thin back shakes and shakes with her sobs. Laurel bites her lip because her vision is clouding up, too, but there’s a twelve year old on her porch who has just lost the older brother she absolutely adored and she needs somebody right now, somebody who understands.

“Shhh, Thea,” she says, and sinks down next to the girl, putting a comforting arm around her. Her own tears threaten to cut off her voice but she continues, “I’m not going to tell you it will be okay, because I don’t know if it ever will be. But I’m here, and I’m sad too, and we can be sad together. Maybe that will make it easier?” Thea buries her head in Laurel’s shoulder and cries and cries and can’t stop. Laurel lets her own tears go, feeling the warmth of them grow cold on her cheeks as the wind dries them and turns them to stiff trails of salt. She runs her hand up and down Thea’s back, and God, she can almost count the vertebrae the girl is so tiny.

Once Thea’s sobs have turned to hiccups, and finally calmed enough that she’s no longer shaking like a kite in a hurricane, Laurel gently pushes the hair out of her face and asks, “Do you maybe want to come inside, now?” Thea nods her head, and one hand peeps out of her giant sleeves to rub at the moisture on her cheeks. “Come on, then” Laurel says, offering a hand to the girl as she stands. Thea grabs Laurel’s hand and her fingers are cold.

They go inside and Thea curls up into a little ball on the couch while Laurel boils some water to make tea for herself, hot chocolate for Thea. When the drinks are ready, she brings them over to the coffee table.

“Thanks,” Thea says, as Laurel hands her a mug.

“How did you even get over here, Speedy?” she asks. She doesn’t miss the way Thea flinches at the nickname and makes a mental note not to use it again. The girl shrugs though, and sets the mug down on the table.

“I know how to call a cab, and it’s not like my allowance doesn’t cover it.”

“But why here?” Laurel wonders aloud.

“I dunno, I kind of just said the first place that came up. But also besides us you were the person Ollie was closest with. And Sara.” Laurel feels the familiar churning in her stomach at the mention of her sister’s name. She can’t sort it out if it’s anger or shame or grief. Maybe a bit of all three. Because Sara is gone, too, and Laurel is mad. Laurel is mad that her sister would do that, and she’s mad at herself for feeling that way. Because Sara is gone and Ollie is gone, and they left them. They left Laurel and Thea alone to deal with the fallout.

“Sorry,” Thea whispers, and Laurel realises she’s pulled away.

“It’s okay,” she says, smoothing the hair off the kid’s forehead, “I was just thinking.”

“About Sara and Ollie?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Laurel sighs. Thea nods like she understands, and snuggles closer to Laurel.

“I don’t want to go home,” she says.

“Well you don’t have to,” Laurel answers, “at least not tonight. But I will have to phone your mom tomorrow morning. She’ll be worried sick if she gets up and you’re not there.”  
“She won’t. She hasn’t gotten out of bed for a couple of days. Not since the service.”

“Well, what if she does? I’m sure she’d be a lot happier knowing where you are.” Thea doesn’t answer. Laurel sighs. “Well, do you want to stay here on the couch and watch some tv with me, just for now?”

“Sure,” Thea says, “what are you watching?”

“I actually don’t know,” Laurel replies, “I was just kind of staring at the screen, really. The noise helps a bit.”

“They usually show reruns of old movies on channel four when it gets really late,” Thea suggests, and Laurel picks up the remote to flip to channel four. There’s something on in black and white, it might even be a musical. She doesn’t ask how Thea knows about the movies. She knows because of the same reason Laurel sits up every night staring blankly into space. She can’t sleep. And it’s something to do.

The two of them settle back against the couch, Thea leaning her head against Laurel’s shoulder, Laurel running a hand calmingly up and down Thea’s arm. About halfway through the film, she feels Thea’s head droop and looks down at the girl. She’s sound asleep.

Laurel extricates herself as carefully as possible, arranging the sleeping girl as comfortably as she can without waking her up. She tucks a throw pillow under her head, and drapes the knitted afghan from the back of the couch over her body. She’ll have to explain to her parents in the morning why there's a sleeping Thea Queen on their couch, but she’s sure they’ll understand. For now, it’s Laurel’s turn to try and get some shut eye. She’ll deal with tomorrow when it comes.


End file.
